The 76th Hunger Games
by elphantidae
Summary: This takes place after its decided that there will be a 76th hunger games with the tributes being reaped from capital citizens. Picks up from when the hovercraft bomb Snow's mansion and is set in an aleternate universe where the 76th games happen from the point of view of a new character, Talia Snow.
1. Chapter 1

_I have to find her._

It's was only coherent thought in my head, the only thing that mattered. I barely felt the marble beneath my feet as I sprinted through the deserted hallways, looking for somebody, _anybody_ who could tell me where everyone went, because I knew that she has to be with them.

_If I don't find her in time…._

Under any normal set of circumstances I would have taken time to marvel at just how empty the mansion seems. In all of my fifteen years, I have seen these halls packed with important government officials, or entire fleets of avoxes preparing for a meal but I have never seen them empty like this. Now when I ran down the halls, the only sound I heard are my footsteps echoing off of the cavernous ceiling and the panting of my own breath and it was almost eerie. Disconcerting.

_Right, left down this hall, right again, down the stairs. Faster. I have to go faster._

As I ran past one room I hear a television that must have been left on in the hurry to evacuate. I didn't stop to watch but it's hard to ignore the report that's echoing down the halls. In fact I knew it by heart now, because it's been the only thing playing on every screen in the Capitol for the past five hours.

"Alert! Alert! The rebels have reached the inner capitol. All Capitol citizens to the city circle. All children to the Presidential Mansion. This is for your own protection"

That's where she will be. She has to be, because if she's not, I don't know where else to look and I don't want to think about what happens if I don't find her in time. I thought of her, how she would have reacted, sitting in school when she heard the alert playing over the intercom. I know her well enough to know that she wouldn't have hesitated to follow all the other kids and teachers in her class to the mansion. After all, she had no reason to be suspicious, no reason to wonder why children were being directed to the one place that the rebels were sure to target. She didn't know anything about Panem's politics or just how low a president would stoop to save his own skin. The image of her penned in the foyer of the mansion, a human shield only made me run faster.

_You can do this, Tallie! You have to do this! Think of her, all alone. You have to get there before they do. _

I'm nearing the end of the corridor, so focused on getting to the foyer that I don't even notice the dark shape who's running past until I run straight into it. I slam into the shadowy figure at full speed and get thrown back against the opposite wall, and I feel the mahogany walls connect with the back of my head. I was so caught off guard that for a moment I just sat against the wall, seeing stars and wondering how I ended up there. That's when I heard a familiar voice.

"Tallie? What are you doing here?"

I froze for a moment , realizing who it was but no quite willing to believe it. My vision was still blurry from the blow from the wall so I asked to make sure. "Cass?" I tentatively ask.

"Yeah. But what are you _doing _here?" is the answer. I feel him grab my arm and pull me up from the ground. For a second, I swayed, trying to get my bearings before looking at him. His face was coming in and out of focus but I still recognized him. I squinted and tried to force my head to stop spinning and for a second I see him clearly, looking at me with a mixture of surprise and concern. And all at once, I remembeedr where I was going in the first place.

"It's her. They made an announcement. They told all the kids to go to the foyer. She's with them she doesn't know…" I said in a rush and then trailed off as I was hit with another wave of dizziness. For a moment he just looked at me with curiosity. Then I saw understanding wash over his face and then confusion as he understood who I was talking about.

"Junia? But she's supposed to be in the foyer, Tal. It's kind of the point of an evacuation," he said.

"Not foyer…I mean, not safe…they're shields," I tried to explain through the haze of confusion clouding my thoughts. I looked back up at him but he clearly didn't understand so I focused my thoughts for one more attempt. "The rebels are coming to the mansion," I explained slowly, "Snow's using the kids..as shields. He think that…he thinks that the rebels won't attack the mansion if there's kids involved," This time, Cass clearly understood as his expression of confusion changed to anger and dread. "I'm going to go get her and then…I'll try to make it back before they get here," I said.

"I'm coming with," he said immediately. I started to objet but he cut me off. "We don't have time to argue so you might as well get used to it," I look at him with frustration and impatience, knowing every second that we were talking, the seconds that we have left are ticking away. Fast.

"Fine," I snapped at him, "the foyer's this way,". I gestured down one of the mazelike hallways and he nodded. For about five minutes we ran side by side, down three flights of stairs and dozens more doorways. I knew we were getting close when I could hear the voices of what must have been hundreds penetrating the empty silence. Just as I saw a light at the end of one of the hallways, my vision blurred again and I stumbled and then fell flat on my face. I quickly pulled myself back up but my vision was still blurred and when I tried to walk, I only stumbled again. "Dammit" I whispered, punching the ground. I took a deep breath and stood up again. This time I swayed but didn't fall.

"Tallie…you can't keep going," said Cass, "I can get her and I'll come back here and we'll help you," God I hated it when someone told me I couldn't do something. I especially hated it when I knew they were right.

"No" I muttered, more to myself than him. "We're going to finish this. Together," I said.

"Tallie, you can't be seriou-," he started but I cut him off.

"We don't have time to argue so you might as well just get used to it," I said. I knew that under the circumstances this probably wasn't the smartest thing to say but it seemed to be working. I watched as he looked at me with frustration and annoyance but I could see his resolve crumbling. "I'm coming with," I said and he looked at me in defeat and shook his head. He grabbed my arm and we took off together, both of us stumbling down the final stretch of hallway toward the light. We both crashed through the threshold together and I was immediately blinded by the bright light coming from the eight gigantic chandeliers that lit the foyer. I rubbed my eyes and looked across the hall.

It was packed with kids, some of whom looked to be about my age and some who couldn't be much older than 2 or 3. The hall was packed with warm bodies and I immediately began to feel claustrophobic. "Find her and let's get out of here," I murmured to Cass who was still holding onto my arm to give me support. I scanned the sea of moving bodies, looking for her two braids which would distinguish her but I couldn't pick her out. I began pushing through the crowd, yelling her name, Cass doing the same. Just when I was sure that there were just too many kids that we would never find her in time, Cass nudged my arm and nodded to the right corner, where I saw Junia pushed against the wall, looking scared but determined.

Together we pushed our way through the crowd towards her and when we were only a few feet away, she saw me and smiled. When we got to her, I looked her up and down, from her lank curls which had come out of their braids to her huge gray eyes and hugged her hard.

"The rebels are coming," I yelled into her ear but she shook her head, not able to hear me over the immense noise in the hall. "We have to go," I yelled, gesturing towards the exit. She still looked confused but nodded so I grabbed her wrist and let Cass pull us through the crowd to the exit. When we passed through the threshold, I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding.

"Tallie! You're here! But why did we leave?" she said all in a rush.

"The rebels are coming. Snow is using the…Never mind, I'll explain it later" I said. I looked over at Cass who looked down the hallway with raised eyebrows. I nodded and we started off in the direction me and Cass had come from, Junea's hand in mine. I glanced back at the foyer, glad to have escaped the pandemonium but what I saw made my heart drop.

Out of one of the windows, a formation of hovercrafts was coming straight towards the mansion. Towards the front of it, where the foyer was, where hundreds of kids were packed so tightly they couldn't move. I dropped Junia's hand and looked over at Cass. He saw it too and his look of horror matched mine. I looked back at all the kids, all oblivious to the fact that they were about to be blown to smithereens. Being the president's granddaughter, I was a lot of things, but I couldn't let hundreds of kids, some of whom I knew, to die like cattle for slaughter. Could I? I knew that this was when I should grab Cass and Junea and look for cover, and thank all of my lucky stars that I wasn't in that room when the hovercraft passed over but instead I found myself dropping Junea's hand and taking off at a sprint in the direction of the foyer. I heard Cass calling after me but I didn't stop until I reached the entry way. I yelled to get everyone's attention but not even the ones closest to me turned to listen. Getting desperate, I started grabbing kids, trying to shove them through the door but none of them would follow. I started to panic, scanning the room looking for something, _anything_, to save them but couldn't see a way out. Trying to tamp down my panic, I felt steely determination rising up inside of me. No matter what happened next, I would not leave them to die in this room, even if it meant dying here with them.

"I thought you could use some help," a voice in my ear said. Cass. "On the count of three we yell together as loud as we can. One..two…three."

"QUIET!" we bellowed together. Immediately, half of the room fell silent and the other half quieted enough for us to talk. I glanced out the window. The hovercrafts were alarmingly close.

"We don't want to cause any mass panic," Cass whispered to me.

"Listen up," I yelled, "We have to clear this room NOW. The rebels have sent hovercraft to the mansion, they'll be here in minutes," If we didn't have every single person in the room's attention before, we did now.

"But the hovercraft are from us," a girl about Junia's age said.

"Yeah, our seals are on them," said a boy who was probably only a year or two younger than me. This did sound odd, but no Capitol hovercraft had any reason to be here and I could tell from the profile of them against the darkening sky that they were armed.

"It doesn't matter what the seals say, anyone left in this room will be dead within five minutes," yelled Cass. Oh, always so delicate and tactful, I thought as I saw terror spread across the masses faces.

"What was that you'd said about _not_ causing mass panic?" I hissed at him. He glanced at me with a crooked smile and shrugged before turning back to the crowd.

"You all need to leave, now!" he bellowed pointing back towards the entry. Apparently that was all the convincing they needed. Immediately hordes of kids began scrambling for the exit, pushing against each other to get there. We worked through the kids trying to keep some semblance of order but as the shapes of the hovercraft got closer and closer, I started grabbing kids at random and pushing them towards the exit.

The room was only half empty when the first bombs hit. Fire bombs, I remembered from my military training. Like fire catching, the panicked yells of the fleeing children transformed into terrified shrieks of pain and despair. In any direction I looked, all I saw was fire. I could still feel bodies moving around me and I pushed the ones closest in what I hoped was the right direction. Then from all the chaos Cass emerged by my side. Desperate I turned to him. We wouldn't make it out of this. After everything, this was it. We would die surrounded by screaming kids in an inferno of heat and explosions. But when I looked at him he was smiling.

"Is Junia-?" I started to ask.

"Safe," he mouthed at me. I felt myself relax a bit. If I died here and now, at least I would be able to suffer it knowing that one of the only two people I cared about in the world was safe. I couldn't feel any kids moving past anymore and the heat had creshendoed into a wall of searing hot air. I felt him grab my hands but this time, it wasn't like any of the other times he had when we were running or playing as kids. I saw him leaning in closer to me, still with a sad smile on his face. This time when he spoke, I could hear it loud and clear over everything.

"Tallie, you have to know, I-"

And that's when the air around us exploded.


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing I remember seeing was dancing white lights above my head. At first I couldn't remember what had happened or even what my name was, much less where I was. Then slowly, it came back to me. My name is Talia Snow. I was trying to find Junia, trying to keep her safe.

"But safe from what?" I thought. Images of a fleet of hovercrafts came into my mind's eye. They were going to bomb us, a whole room of kids. We had gotten Junia out…and then what? It occurred to me, that wherever I was, I should try to sit up but just trying to move my arms made my head spin. I decided to focus on decoding whatever series of events had lead me to this state. The next thing I remembered was the whole room going up in flames. Hmmm….was I dead? It was a definite possibility, I guess. But now that I thought of it, I had to be lying on something. I reached out my fingers and grabbed a fistful of….blankets? Was I on a bed somewhere? If I was then at least I wasn't dead. I remembered hitting my head so maybe that was part of it.

For a while, I just lay there waiting for something to happen. I can't be sure, but I think I may have fallen asleep a few times because after a little while, when I looked up at the lights, they weren't lights anymore but rather a light. A light stuck in a square of drop ceiling.

Definitely not dead, then.

This time when I tried to sit up, I was able to lever myself up into a sort of sitting position. I looked around the room and it was fairly easy to tell that I was in some kind of hospital or infirmary. There were several other beds but mine was the only one that appeared to be occupied. I knew from the mahogany walls that I still had to be in the Presidential Mansion.

"I know girls need their beauty sleep but don't you think you're taking that a bit literally?" came a voice. I knew who said it before I looked over. Sure enough, there he was sitting on a chair, same crooked half smile same medium length straight black hair and eyes.

"So now you're making a habit of watching girls sleep? Some people might interpret that as creepy," I shot back but he only laughed quietly. I looked over to a table on my right where an empty tray of food was. "Did you eat my lunch?" I asked accusingly to which he winked. I rolled my eyes at him and reached over to pull up the metal tray. Looking at my reflection, I wondered if you could still call my sleep "beauty sleep" if you woke up looking like the undead. I turned back towards Cass.

"So we lived?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, which was an unusually short answer for him. I looked at him and saw that he wasn't meeting my eyes and that he was playing with a piece of medical tape between his fingers. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What aren't you telling me?" I asked. Obviously, the rebels had won over the Capitol so maybe that was it but there was definitely something else that he didn't want me to know.

"You missed the first sunny day of spring," he said, "there were birds and other picturesque woodland creatures out and about,"

"I can tell you're stalling so whatever it is you might as well just tell me," I said, starting to get annoyed.

"You think I'm stalling?" he asked with mock confusion. In reply I glared at him and he relented. "Ok, how long do you think you were out?" he said his voice getting business like.

"I don't know two days, maybe three?" I answered, carefully watching his face for any reactions.

"Actually, it was more like a week, give or take," he said scratching his head. "Actually, it was more like two." I could tell he was watching me, gauging my reactions. For some reason this bothered me so I kept my face deadpan. Inside though, I was reeling. Two weeks? How could I have been out cold for two weeks? And then I remembered.

"Is Junia…Ok?" I asked, terrified to hear the answer.

"Yeah, shes fine. She wanted to see you when first woke up but the doctors said she was too young or something," he said. I breathed out slowly, relief flooding my body.

"So what exactly did I wake up from?" I asked.

"The bombs that they dropped were fire bombs, Tal, but they were also designed to go off again to hit the wave of first responders. You were OK through the first round of them but the second time knocked you out," He looked at me, as if giving me time to process before going on. "The doctors say that you were lucky, because you weren't burned by the fire but they said that with your first concussion and the original blast, the second round was enough to knock you out. You were in some kind of coma for a week and by the time you came out of it a lot of things had happened.

"The rebels won the Capitol so that combined with their hold over the districts effectively gives them control over Panem. The hovercrafts that bombed us were from the Capitol. They we-"

"The hovercraft weren't from the Capitol," I interjected. "If they were, they would have been evacuating Snow, not bombing the only protection he had left"

"Well that's what everyone's saying, Tallie. Maybe you're right, maybe not but those hovercrafts had Capitol seals on them and Coin is definitely not going to take responsibility," he replied.

"So Coin is the new head?" I asked. He nodded in reply and I started thinking. Regardless of what statement some ambitious up-and-coming rebel president said, I still couldn't believe that those hovercrafts were from the Capitol. So if they were rebel, then why? Why bomb a room full of children. There was no point to it, not when the war was so close to being over. Unless whoever sent them thought that the quickest way to end Capitol resistance was to destroy whatever faith they had left in their president. And what better way to do so then-

"Um..Tallie? Are you OK? You're being really quiet," asked Cass. I started, realizing that I had just been all but ignoring Cass.

"Yeah, I'm fine. So Rebels in control, new person, same power hungry leader…anything else I missed?" I asked.

"Well, yes. You know Katniss Everdeen?" he asked.

"Katniss Everdeen, face of the rebellion, victor of the Hunger Games, pregnant with Peeta's love-child, Katniss Everdeen? Yeah I'm familiar," I responded.

"Her little sister was one of the victims of the blast. She was one of the first responders to the bombings. Well she wasn't quite so lucky and she's…well, she died…but the point is that it riled up the country again and there isn't exactly a lot of pro-Capitol sentiment right now, "he said.

I nodded, taking it all in. I remembered the sister from some of the TV interviews. She was a year younger than me and all of Panem adored her. It was really tragic that she died like that but how did it affect us? Cass wouldn't have mentioned it if it didn't. It wasn't like Panem had been filled with pro-Capitol sentiment before but I still didn't see how all of this came back to us. As far as the rebels knew, neither one of us was personally involved in the war.

"Well while you were out there was a lot of talk about what would happen to the survivors in the Capitol. You see, some people thought it was best just to get rid of all of us but obviously that didn't go through but people still wanted some form of revenge," and here he finally looked away and I could tell that we were getting to whatever he didn't want to tell me. What he said next, he said all in one breath. "There was a vote between all surviving victors to what would happen as a punishment and they agreed that there would be one more Hunger Games to compensate for the lives the districts lost in the past ones. And this one would be fought with the children of important Capitol figures," he finished apologetically.

WHAT? This was not happening. This could not be happening. After everything, after all the lengths I had gone through to keep us all safe, _this_? Children of important Capitol figures? That was me. There was no possibility that I would dodge this, being Snow's granddaughter. I wouldn't if I could anyway, because Cass's mother was the head of the peacekeeping force which guaranteed him a spot. But this didn't make sense. Of all the things that I anticipated, that I knew could happen to a politician's child, this was never one of them. I had prepared for every danger that could possibly befall us and yet it had never even crossed my mind that this could happen. There were certain risks that came with being born into politics, like being subject to unruly tempers, or being used as leverage against uncooperative parents, but never in a million years would I have considered this. Not after everything we made it through, the three of us. And then it hit me. And I felt ice cold panic seeping through every vein in my body.

"No," I said when I finally found my voice. "They can't have her," Cass couldn't even look up and just sat with his head in his hands.

Not her. I was supposed to protect her, supposed to keep her safe. But how could I do that in an arena filled with 21 other people whose survival hinged on her dying? But maybe she wouldn't get picked. Her parents both occupied pretty major positions in Snow's office, both involved with the Hunger Games but surely nobody would be so cruel to make 11 year old Junia fight to the death against people almost twice her age and three times her weight. She wasn't even of the required age for another 10 months.

And then another equally unpleasant thought hit me. Out of the twenty-four that would compete in these Hunger Games, twenty-three would have to die. Most of the people we would be up against would be people I knew and some of them I was friends with. And what about Cass? If I chose to save Junea, he would have to die to and the very thought starts to make me light headed. That's when one of the machines I was hooked up to starts beeping and within seconds the room was filled with nurses. I heard Cass yelling at them and telling them to leave me alone and I try to sit up only to be pushed back down into the bed. Then I feel a needle being pushed into the crook of my arm and my vision turns to black.

_8 Years Ago_

I remember the first time that I met Cass. It was at some fancy dinner thrown my grandfather, President Snow, as a banquet for all of his higher ups. By then I already knew Junia who was only a three year old at the time. I kept glancing down the table at her, trying to make sure she was OK but my mother would pull me back my collar and tell me not to lean and that I had to keep my posture. Cass was in between his parents, sitting opposite of me and was looking at me with confusion, as if trying to figure out what I was trying to see. That's when my mother switched the conversation from grain supply in the districts to the Capitol education. As part of the Presidential family, I had gone to the High Academy of Learning and Fine Arts, a school reserved for the children of the most important families. The current argument revolved around whether the children were being instructed well enough in their classical language studies. That's when my mother spoke up.

"Young Talia is the model of what the students should be. 7 years old and already fluent in two languages," she said. I knew that showing off your kid's achievements was an upper-class way of bragging in the Capitol but by then I think I had realized that even though I attended HALFA, it was not normal for someone of my age to be fluent in two languages. I would find out later just how different I was.

"Oh? And which languages would that be?" asked the man who I recognized as the head of District Labor. I opened my mouth to answer only to get cut off by my mother.

"Latin and Greek," she said with a little false laugh at the end. I felt her long, painted finger nails dig into my shoulder as she put her arm delicately around me.

"Could we hear some from little Talia?" asked a man wearing a badge that distinguished him as one of Snow's advisors. I looked over at my mother for permission, with my hands folded in my lap. I was using all of the etiquette that was considered proper for a child of my stature.

"Well go on Talia, show them," said my mother, her voice like breaking glass. I cleared my throat quietly.

"Et glorificatus sum in curia praesidis per exempla haberi felis. Denique omnia ad doctrinam de gratia Lorem ipsum iudices Capitolio," I answered in perfect Latin. The table broke out into applause and I bowed my head and smiled in the proper form of flattery. All the time Cass, was just watching me as if trying to figure something out.

It was only after the dinner was over that I fist spoke to him. I was wearing a frilly pink party dress that no doubt cost thousands of dollars and when he came up to me, he was wearing a tuxedo that was obviously appropriate for the occasion. I was only seven years old but I had already learned only to speak when spoken to and the procedures that had to be followed when approached by someone of equal rank. I immediately curtsied when he came up to me and he bowed back to me in perfect form.

"You know two languages?" he asked. I kept my head down and nodded in a sign of humility. "I wish I did. I can barely say what my name is in Latin," he said. I was a little taken aback by his statement. It was considered bad etiquette to bring up one's own shortcomings or to express jealousy over another's accomplishments. I looked up at him and noticed that his eyes were a shade of ice-blue that could only have come from some kind of Capitol genetic modification.

"I don't remember seeing you in school," I told him politely. As the son of the Head of Peacekeepers he would go to HALFA too and he looked to be about my age.

"I'm with the eights," he answered.

"I'm a seven," I said. So that was why he wasn't familiar. Being an eight, he would be in the year ahead of me. He looked at me and nodded.

"Do you want to see something amazing?" he asked. I knew that this was definitely considered bad manners and all of my etiquette training was screaming at me that now was the time to politely tell him that I had to return to my parents. But something inside of me was tired of following all of the rules and the idea of sneaking off, unauthorized with another member of the presidential families had a sort of quality of rebellion that immediately appealed to me. I froze for a minute, torn between what I should do and what I wanted to do.

"It's on the roof so I get it if you're scared," he went on. That made up my mind.

"I am _not _scared." I said and stamped my foot in an unladylike moment of indignation. "Take me to the roof," I said. He grinned at me in a goofy way and then started walking off down one of the hallways leaving me to hurry after.

When we made it through the final doorway that lead to the roof, I immediately sighed with pleasure as I felt the cool air of the outside world hitting my face. I knew that the mansion had a roof but I had never been allowed up on it. It was filled with a garden and all different kind of plants. I recognized some of them from a book on botany I had borrowed from my library. I had never seen them in real life though. He ran off ahead, gesturing to me to follow him. He finally stopped at the edge of the roof. He was smiling proudly and pointing down. I cautiously came up close to the edge and looked over and gasped. The whole Capitol was lit up in a multicolored kaleidoscope. Down on the street, I could see crowds of people walking by.

"How did you find this place," I murmured.

"Each time your grandfather invites us to your house, I always found a time to explore. But when I found this place, I always came back to it every time I was here." He explained quietly.

"It's beautiful!" I exclaimed, still mesmerized by the bright city lights below us. "It's like seeing everything for the first time. I can't believe I never knew…" I trailed off. We sat there, our legs dangling over the edge until we saw the cars that would take the guests home pull up outside of the mansion.

"I guess we have to go now," he said, standing up and stretching. I tore my sight away from the view below and looked at him.

"Why did you take me here?" I asked. He looked surprised, as if he had never quite considered it.

"I guess because we need to stick together. You know, all of us." He answered slowly. I thought of Junia and nodded. He turned to go and I followed him silently. When we made it back to the dining room he met up with his parents and I found mine.

I thought that I wouldn't see him until the next time my grandfather threw a State Dinner but it turned out the very next day at HALFA, he found me in the lunch room. A year later, my grandfather invited his family and a few others to move into the mansion to keep his political allies closer. That was easily one of the best days of my life because for the first time I had found someone that I could spend time with without worrying about what was good form or having to talk about superficial petty things. Together, we became inseparable. Whenever we had the chance, we went up to the roof together, sometimes taking Junia with us.

For the first time, I started to learn about what happened in the real world beyond what I learned in books. I started to feel like a real person instead of a pretty, robotic manikin. I began to understand just how sheltered my life had been and just how dangerous the world could be. As it turned out, I would find out firsthand only a year and a half later.


	3. Chapter 3

When I woke up again I was still in the same room in the hospital but this time Cass wasn't there. The wires that used to hook me up to monitors just dangled unconnected by the side of my bed. I sat up, wondering how much time I had missed. If a week was enough to sentence me to death, then what had happened when I was out this time? There was a doctor in the corner of the room, packing medical equipment into boxes.

"Excuse me. What day is it?" I asked. He didn't even look up from what he was doing. "I said excuse me, what day is it?" I asked in a louder voice. The doctor sighed and turned to me as if answering my one question was a waste of his precious time.

"You didn't miss any time if that's what you're worried about Ms. Snow. You were only unconscious for about an hour. Your friend had to be escorted back to his quarters," he said.

So Cass wasn't cooperating. Shocker.

I leaned over my bed to try to get a look at whatever was being packed into boxes. "What are you doing?" I asked. He sighed and walked away from the boxes to give me his full attention.

"Packing medical supplies for transport to the districts. I don't know whether your friend told you but part of the rebel's victory involve redistribution of Capitol supplies." He said while glancing at his watch. Oh, that's right. The rebels won and I am going to be a tribute in some kind of sadistic payback Hunger Games.

"So what's going to happen to me next?" I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"I don't know. I'm not involved in politics but it's common knowledge that all prominent Capitol children will be involved in a Reaping some time later today." I nodded and lay back down. So Cass wasn't allowed to see me. And judging from the guard's stationed outside of my door, I probably wasn't allowed to leave either. I wondered if Junia was under the same kind of house arrest. My thoughts were interrupted as the metal door swung open. A tall muscular looking woman in fatigues strode in with two equally military looking men behind her.

"Talia Snow?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Why?"

"You're coming with us," said one of the men behind her. That was when I started to feel warm fury creeping up in my blood.

"Why?" I repeated in a steely tone.

"You have to come with us right now Ms. Snow," responded the woman in the middle.

"Yeah, I got that part. But why?" I snapped at her. Apparently we had exceeded the question and answer part because she nodded at the two men standing behind her who bodily picked me up out of bed and dragged me to the door by my armpits. "Get your hands off of me," I snarled at them while I did my best to kick and elbow them.

It didn't make a difference as they dragged me down two flights of stairs and into a room that I recognized as being used as a servants quarter. They threw me into the room so that I landed painfully on my elbow. I immediately scrambled up and rushed back to the door but it was too late. The door was already slamming in my face. I ran up to it and screamed and pounded on the door but I could already hear their footsteps fading down the hall.

"Dammit," I screamed and punched the door. This was a bad idea though, because within seconds my hand started to hurt causing me to release a slew of curse words at the door. Finally giving up, my back to the door, I slid down the wall and sat with my arms wrapped around my knees. I looked around the room and it was pretty much empty except for a small bathroom in the corner and a bed facing the wall. It had no windows, so I had no idea what time of day it was. I leaned back and closed my eyes. I needed time to think, time to analyze my situation.

So I would be in the hunger games. There would be a reaping though, and thinking about it there were at least fifty other kids I could think of whose parents made them eligible for the games. I doubted the selection process would be random though. The districts would want to see the kids of the people most directly responsible for their suffering on their TVs.

It stung me how unfair it was that the people who had watched their own children be slaughtered on national television would damn more innocent kids to the same fate. The victors had voted for this. I tried to think back to all the times I had seen the victors on television and who might have voted for it. Katniss would have, I knew that. It didn't make much sense though. She had entered the hunger games to protect her own little sister. Junia might not be related by blood to me but I considered her more my family then I ever would my parents. Katniss must have known that kids her age would be involved. How could anybody be so callous? I felt white hot fury at Katniss Everdeen leaping up inside of me. Sitting in that tiny cramped room, I don't think I had ever hated anybody more in my entire life.

I forced myself to calm down. Anger and hatred were not productive and they wouldn't help Cass or Junia. I thought of some of the other victors. There was Annie Cresta, the mad girl, but I didn't think she had it in her to vote for something like this. And Finnick Odair. I knew he hated the Capitol and after what it had put him through, he had good reason. Most of this hatred, I realized, was probably directed towards Snow in particular which of course came back to me. I had no trouble believing he voted yes. Then Mags, the little old lady from Three. I didn't know enough about her to be sure but I don't think she voted yes. Peeta either for that matter. Haymitch would have voted with Katniss so that was another yes. Beetee probably voted no, being so technically minded. Johanna was angry enough to vote yes. Same for Brutus and Enobaria. Then Seeder and Chaff who I honestly couldn't tell. I couldn't remember any more victors other than that. I wondered if any of them would be mentors. I didn't know what I would do if I saw one of them. They were still all willing to let kids get punished for their parent's mistakes. I realized I had next to no chance of surviving these games even without taking in the fact that I had to protect Cass and Junia. Being the president's daughter assured a target on my head. The fact was that none of the victors, rebels, or Capitol people would ever see me as anything other than Snows granddaughter. I was never my own person, just a face to pin all of their hatred and anger on. And now that's all I ever would be.

I looked back around the room and sighed and walked towards the bathroom. If the Reapings were today, then I needed to look presentable. I turned the water as hot as it would go and stepped in. I knew that right now I should be crying or breaking down over my imminent death and the danger that the only people in the world I cared about were in but I couldn't. Years of conditioning to hide my emotions had taken their toll.

I tried to tell myself that I was going to die, that it was unavoidable, trying to condition myself so it wouldn't affect me. But it just wasn't in my nature to give up like that. I was the idea girl, the one who always, _always,_ had a plan. So what was I doing sitting in the shower feeling sorry for myself? I shut off the water and grabbed a towel. I put the clothes that had been left in the bathroom on and wiped my hand over the mirror so I could see my reflection. This was not me. I knew better than anyone that there was always something, some way to dig myself out of whatever hole I was stuck in some plan b, some second option. There was _always_ something. I looked in the mirror. This is the face the world didn't care enough to see. The only one they saw was the one I was born with and the label that came with it. But I saw it. I looked at myself more carefully. Instead of seeing a girl who had just been condemned to death, I saw a girl with a defiant spark in her eyes that refused to accept her sentence. I looked myself in the eye and said it out loud.

"There is always something." I whispered to my reflection. I turned away from the mirror and started pacing the room, the gears in my head already turning.

I had worked out a rough idea for a plan when they came to get me. The same woman and guards dragged me out of the room. We passed through two more doors and then I was pushed into bright sunlight. I blinked, trying to adjust to the light. I was in the middle of the city circle, just in front of the mansion, where a stage had been erected with a giant glass ball with little slips of paper inside. This was the reaping, I realized. I squinted and looked up at the glass ball. Out of the twenty-four slips of paper inside of the ball, my name was written on one of them. I looked around the yard and saw that it was filled with kids. Most of them were my age. Some looked scared and some were sobbing onto each other's shoulders. I spotted Junia on the opposite side and gave her a slight wave. She looked terrified but managed a weak smile back when she saw me. All in all there were probably sixty of us in the yard. Behind us and opposite from the stage, there was a crowd of people taping the scene with video cameras. I scanned the crowds looking for Cass when I saw who was sitting on the stage.

The victors.

All twelve of the surviving ones, looking down on us. Some had expressions of anger, some of satisfaction, some repulsion, and I couldn't be sure, but did I see sympathy on a few of them? And in the middle was Katniss Everdeen. I remembered my earlier hatred of her and unconsciously took a step forward. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and I whipped around to see Cass. He saw what I was about to do and subtly shook his head. I nodded back at him, and stepped back into place.

The same woman who had escorted me down took the stage. She was in stark contrast with Effie Trinket, the woman who usually announced the Reapings. When she started to talk, it was not much different than the other years of Hunger Games except this time it was the Capitol that was to blame. Apparently this year, because there were no districts, we would be randomly paired with either another boy or girl and each of us would be assigned one of the twelve surviving victors as a mentor. She took a pause and then walked over to the Reaping ball and pulled out a name.

"Julia Landers" she read. I watched as Julia walked faintly up to the stage and took a spot. I knew Julia as the head of our school's play. I didn't know her well, but we had sat together at lunch. I clenched my fist.

"Hadrian Smith," she read and I watched as Hadrian stepped up onto the stage. The next name I heard took my breath away.

"Cassius Gaius."

I watched as though in slow motion as he squeezed my hand and then let himself be escorted to the stage.

"Talia Snow."

I felt dizzy but kept my face impassive. I could hear part of the crowd that had gathered jeering as I walked up to the stage. One of the rebel guards grabbed my arm to escort me, but I yanked it away and briskly walked up to the stage before anyone could stop me. I took my spot next to Cass and watched as the next name was announced. After the twentieth name, I started to hope that maybe Junia wouldn't be picked. After all, she wasn't old enough to compete. I listened with first relief and then guilt as the twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third names were announced. I was just starting to let myself believe that she was safe from all this when I heard her name announced over the microphone.

"Junia Lepidus."

I watched as she hugged one of her friends and started to slowly walk up to the stage.

I looked at her, desperately trying to think of a way to get her out of this.

_Think Tallie! There is_ always_ something._

And that was when I saw the something that could save her. Past the crowd of kids to the crowd of camera-people, there was a gap between the guards, maybe just wide enough for her to escape without being caught. I watched as one of the guards shoved her forward toward the stage so hard that she fell. She got up with a bloody nose and blood running down her face. That was all it took to ignite my fury. I leaped of the stage and at the rebel guard and managed to knock him to the ground. Junia stood looking down at me with terror.

"Run!" I yelled at her and jerked my head towards the gap. She immediately took off in the opposite direction of the stage, towards the gap in the crowd, but a guard grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back to the stage. Meanwhile, I was kicking and screaming as I felt guards grabbing me and trying to pull me off the one I had landed on. I swung my fists as hard as I could and I think that I managed to knock two out before I was pulled off.

"Get your hands off of her!" I heard Cass yell from somewhere before I was hit over the head with one of the guard's batons.


	4. Chapter 4

**So I forgot to mention this earlier, but for the need of more mentors for the tributes, in this AU, most of the tributes who died in the Quell never did. Same goes for the stylists. I also apologize if there's anything wrong with the formatting, this is my first story so I'm still kind of new at this. Hope you enjoy!**

After getting hit with the baton I didn't pass out but I wasn't exactly conscious either. I was aware of being carried up flights of stairs and to an elevator and then being dropped on a soft surface. After whoever had carried me had left, I tried lying still to regain my vision.

In hindsight, attacking one of the guards had been an incredibly stupid thing to do. As if eleven year old Junia would escape a city packed with armed guards through a gap in a crowd, and yet some part of me didn't think that the consequences outweighed the satisfaction of seeing the shock on that guards face when I hit him.

Finally, I tried to sit up and saw that I was lying on a couch in the apartments usually reserved for the tributes from district twelve. It was funny that from beginning to end of this whole thing that I had never technically left the mansion and I probably wouldn't until the opening ceremonies. Sighing, got up off the couch and walked down a hallway to end up in the dining room and what I saw made me get angry all over again.

There were five people sitting around the table, apparently midway through a meal. The first I recognized as Cai, the boy who apparently was my randomly selected partner. I didn't really know him other than the fact that he was the grandson of one of the previous head Gamemakers and that he couldn't be older than thirteen years old. Too his right was Portia, one of the old stylists from the hunger games who was apparently paired up with Cai. At one end of the table was Cinna, another one of District 12's old stylists who would be paired up with me. But it was the two people at the other end of the table who really set me off. Finnick Odair and Katniss Everdeen, talking over split pea soup as if they had not a care in the world. When I walked through the door, they all froze and stared. I casually walked around the table and sat down and then served myself to some of the soup that was prepared. I could feel all their eyes watching me.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," I said in a bored voice looking up from my soup. That was enough for them all to turn back to their dinners but still nobody said anything.

Portia was the first one to speak.

"We didn't know whether to wake you or not," she said nervously.

I looked up at her and shrugged to show my indifference. "So what did I miss?" I asked of no one in particular. This time Cinna answered.

"As you can tell, you have been placed with Cai as your partner. I am your assigned stylist and Katniss here will be your mentor," he explained. So Katniss was my mentor. This struck me as incredibly unfair. I mean, out of all of the victors she probably hates me the most. She was the one who voted for the games that would end in my death and now she was supposed to mentor me to keep me alive? I was guaranteed to die anyway but the thought of her being in charge of my supplies and gifts from sponsors made me feel physically sick. The feelings of disgust and rage bubbled up in my stomach. Under any normal circumstances I would have kept my mouth shut and done what was expected of me but seeing as I only had two week top left to live….

"So what did you vote?" I asked looking down the table at Katniss and Finnick. They both looked a bit taken aback by my directness and neither said anything. "What did you two vote? For the games?" I repeated while dipping my roll in my soup. My statement had the desired effect of uncomfortable silence. And then….

"We voted yes," answered Finnick, looking at me with narrowed eyes. I nodded and took a bite of my role. It was quiet for about ten more minutes.

"So, you two are going to be mentors?" I asked conversationally. They both nodded. I started laughing and for a minute it was the only sound in the room. The whole room was looking at me nervously like I had suddenly gone mad. "Oh, come on! You don't see the irony here? They voted yes to the games because they wanted to see us dead and now their job is to keep us alive! It's damn near poetic," I explained. Nobody said anything but I saw Finnick's hand tighten slightly around his spoon. I was enjoying watching them squirm and now I wanted to go in for the kill. "So why'd you do it?" I asked. "and please don't say that it was for the greater good or to appease the districts because we all know that _that_'s not true." Neither of them answered. Finnick was glaring at me and Katniss was looking at me with surprise, as if she didn't think I had the capacity for such emotions. I kept my voice casual but I couldn't stop some of the fury I was feeling from seeping through. "I know that most victors came out of the arena a little screwed up in the head but I honestly didn't think that it made them crazy enough to murder twenty-four more innocent children." I heard a piece of silverware drop somewhere in the background and gasps around the table but my attention was fixed on the two at the end. Katniss involuntarily stood up and at the same time Finnick hissed "How dare you!" Without realizing what I was doing I stood up too.

"How dare I? How dare _I_? I'm not the one who's prepared to slaughter dozens of kids so they can feel like they've had revenge. I mean I know that you have to pretty ruthless to become a victor but this is really a new low," I said my voice shaking with rage.

"We only had to fight in _your_ games because you all thought it was good entertainment to watch us die terrible deaths on live television," snarled Finnick.

"See that's where you're wrong," I started. "_I_ never agreed with the games. I know that that's probably a bit difficult for you to wrap your brains around since every Capitol person is obviously a bloodthirsty barbaric monster but I never did. Just because of what my last name is, doesn't mean that I was born with horns in the back of my head, you moron." That was when the sh-t really hit the fan.

"You have no idea what it's like to live in the districts," yelled Katniss. "You have no idea what it's like watching your friends and family dying and to have to pretend like you're happy about it. _You_ slaughtered our kids_ you_ were the ones who stood by and watched as we starved so don't try and put it any other way."

"I was never involved with any of this! Until a few years ago, I wasn't even old enough to know what the Hunger Games were! So you can paint us all into whatever monsters you want to justify what you are doing to yourselves but don't pretend that you don't know somewhere deep down that somewhere along the line you became monsters yourselves. And when they send my body back to whoever will claim it think of this; _you_ are responsible for our deaths and whatever lies you tell yourself will never take the blood off of your hands." I paused for effect before going on. "You are going to regret this," I said not breaking eye contact with her, "even if that means that I will come back and haunt you for the rest of your miserable life," She stared at me in shock and maybe a little bit of fear before responding.

"You can't just-" she started but I cut her off.

"Why is it you're doing this?" I repeated. "I know _he_ has a good reason," I said jerking my finger back at Finnick who was looking at me with a stormy look on his face. "Is it because you genuinely want revenge for your time in the Arena? Or do you think that this somehow makes up for Prim's death?" my words hung in the air for a minute. Katniss looked as if I had slapped her in the face. I felt satisfaction and on some level, guilt. I hadn't meant to go this far. Finnick broke the silence.

"Don't worry about her, Katniss. She's just upset because she knows she's going to die."

With that statement, any bit of remorse I might have had for what I said evaporated to be replaced by seething rage.

"Do you seriously think that I'm upset that _I_ will die? This is not about me! This was _never_ about me!" I yelled. I watched as his face filled with rage and confusion before turning on my heel and walking out of the room. When I made it to my quarters, I buried my head in my pillow and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out my thoughts. On my first night as tribute, I had burned any possible bridges with my mentor, made myself a sure target for once the games began, and basically killed whatever impossibly slim chance of survival I had had. All in all, I thought it had gone well.


End file.
